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[Blind Gossip] This celebrity couple is very afraid that they will get caught up in the college admissions scandal!

While they did not use the company that is in the news, they did do something shady to “help” their child get into a good college.

I don’t think [their child] is stupid, but they hired a professional writer to fill out all the applications and do all the essays on all the application forms. They literally wrote dozens of essays and made up stories to make the kid look smart and thoughtful. [Their child] did not write a single word on a single application.

Now they are freaking out that someone will find out. They actually bought a burner phone last week to call the writer to see if anyone was asking questions!

Our source only knows about the essays, so we don’t know if there was any manipulation of test scores, payments to school officials, or other criminal activity.

The couple lives in Southern California.

Similar: My Baby’s Going To College

Couple:

[Optional] You are in charge of a college. If you found out that a student did something shady to get admitted (had someone else write their essays, cheated on a standardized test, bribed a school official), would you reject/dismiss them from your school?

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Comments

  1. I don’t know who this is but I am super salty about this whole cheating scandal. My daughter had a near 4.0; 35 ACT score and 1400 SAT and was turned down from her top choices for college. She didn’t know what she was up against.

    • Years ago I had a friend in high school that focused all her efforts into getting all those academic accolades. She graduated with perfect everything and my friends and I thought she was going to get into college, get lots of scholarships, and be made co-valedictorian with the other two students that managed the same grades and test scores she did. But because she didn’t participate in more than one school club she was seen as not being part of the community. Grades arent everything

    • while there is no excuse for the whole thing, i havent yet seen this being so widespread that it explains everyones failure to get into their school of choice.

  6. No idea who it is, but if a student had cheated to get into a college they should definitely be expelled. In these cases, I guess it would depend on how complicit the student was – they might not know their parents were bribing the school, but in this case as it’s literally hiring someone to write their entrance papers, they should be rejected out of hand. They’re cheating someone else out of an education.

    • I think it gets complicated when 1. The student is a junior or senior and has put in the work since starting school there and there’s no reason to believe they knew about it (hard worker, no fake sports transcripts, etc) and 2. Whether it was cheating on the SATs or buying someone else’s spot. Cheating on SATs doesn’t get someone into college alone and the punishment for that should be academic probation or something. Punishment needs to fit the crime. Freshman should be tossed.

  7. If students (or they parents) who did something shady should be dismiss, than also those, whos families donated huge amount of money or some buildings. it’s not fair if someone who’s cheating cost him 15000 is punished, but those, who “invested” 2,5 million not. there is no difference.

    • This is one of two points I keep trying to make. Both are immoral, but why should publicly donating 7 figures be legal but privately donating (bribe, same thing here) is a felony?
      Also, paying 15k to have someone cheat on your kids SAT is bad, but it’s not even similar to buying acceptance to college. Still need grades, extra curriculars, ACT, essay, etc. SATs are least impt of the bunch. Not OK AT ALL, but journos are treating both crimes as the same.

    • You’re missing a very important point – the public donations benefit everyone in the university. 7 figures can help construct a new library or add to the endowment fund to provide scholarships for needy students (like I got!) A donation is not a bribe and it is the furthest thing from immoral. Think of it as donating to a political action committee vs. putting some cash in a politicians pocket in order to get them to vote a certain way.

    • Donating money to a university shouldn’t be viewed as a crime or as a student enrolling w/o merit. If the student has credentials (GPA, SAT, etc.) & would otherwise be considered, donating money is a little extra insurance. I don’t have an issue w/that. It’s the students outright lying about grades, faking essays, or pretending to be in a sport. Besides, donations to universities help all students.

    • High Steppa- you’re correct in that, but it doesn’t make it anymore OK that a huge donation can steal a hard worker’s earned spot. New libraries at top unis cost like $100M. How often are donations wound up in bonuses? What are the chances that it’s all on the up and up given the practice itself is wrong, punishes those who work hard but aren’t super rich and rewards the lazy richest people in the world.

    • @High Steppa so You can basically buy a graduation from Harvard as long as You are doing it openly and with huge amount of money?

    • High Steppa you’re missing the bigger picture. This parent didn’t “donate” 7 figures so that “everyone” in the university could benefit. They donated this ridiculous amount to guarantee their spoiled spawn would get into this prestigious university and travel the path father had very carefully masterminded. By donating this massive amount to the University it’s “hidden”, he gets a tax write off and no one is the wiser. Until now.

    • Lindasu you are correct. I’m not talking about these bribes. I’m talking about public donations to a university. People seem to be lumping public donations to the University’s endowment fund in with these illegal bribes. And CarrieBradshaw, a donation doesn’t “buy” a graduation, only an admission. I was the recipient of a generous scholarship made possible by public donations to an endowment fund as were several of my friends. But my graduation took my own work.

    • Not High Steppa, but,
      @carriebradshaw Buying an entrance isn’t buying passing grades.
      @Lindsasu I think the “big picture” is that the only reason schools have gpa/sat requirements is to keep the school prestigious, not to reward hard-working high school students. If a well-connected kid can bring some type of prestige or relevancy, the little dummy met the purpose of any grade standards the school has. No one thinks (or cares) that the parents have pure motives to donate.

  8. No. I’d encourage more writers and test takers to be hired so eventually the classrooms would be vacant because all the college attendees would be idiotic socialites who want to go to college just for the parties and games. Of course they should be expelled, just like people who lie on job applications should be fired.

  9. I know exactly who did it. Her name is MY MOM, and she checked the grammar and changed the essay to make her daughter sound more sympathetic to the plight of poor people. She took out the “like” in like every other word. If the feds call, I know nothing.

  10. Tori Spelling, planning for her oldest boy’s future already so she can present Candy Spelling with the exorbitant bill in advance and take $100,000 off the top for herself as a “manager’s fee.”
    😉

  11. For some reason, I am thinking about Maurice Umansky and Kyle, who just took their daughter back to GW University on the show. But, the blind is so vague, this is a wild guess.

    • Cheating. They just continue the cheating. Why we would think they’re above that is a mystery to me.

  13. I’d hope the college would reject the application or dismiss the student if he/she had already been accepted based on fraud. Plus the fraud needs to follow the student. He/she needs to just go to Community College or Junior College and live at home to prove herself or himself.

  14. I don’t know who the couple is, but as an admissions officer would I reject or recommend for expulsion someone who had done something shady? ABSOLUTELY. When I submitted my college admissions packets I had to sign that everything was my own work and words and I had not falsified any part of my admission documents in any way. If it was found later that I had done so, I would forfeit my admission in the college.

    • I don’t know who this couple is, but cheating offspring should be expelled, whether they voluntarily withdraw or not, and prosecuted alongside their parents. Knowing that their children will pay a criminal price in prison may be the only thing that stops these parents. Anyone who has already graduated needs to have their diploma pulled.

    • What if the kid didn’t know how they got into the school? Or, what if the student did really well in their classes without cheating? I think the whole thing is so complicated – parents do things like this to increase their own status among their friends. An underhanded parent can easily manipulate a financially dependent kid.

    • He was super quick to scream his praise for his “hard working sons”. I think he deleted it, but either way, I don’t think it’s him. NYU hasn’t been implicated yet, but so many famous kids go there &it’s extremely hard to get in. I’d look at that. My biggest fear is that this is spread so far it reaches law school &even worse, MED school. If so, been going on so long that there could be MDs that barely know the liver from the kidney. RN it f’s ppl over, if it’s law &med school, it’s dangerous!

  16. I dunno, but I would say whoever the “writer” is, s/he has job security for a long. long time. This is the time for them to discuss that new script that needs funding with the guilty minded thespian, perhaps?? Hmmmm……

  17. 1) . The middle class pays for essay help, too.

    2). I do alumni interviewing for a *very* elite college; the truth is the essays are not that pivotal unless you’ve had a transformative life experience. A poorly written essay will hurt you, but a great one won’t get you in.

    3). Any student whose parents cheated should be expelled. The student knew what was happening. We are not imprisoning them for 20yrs for murder, but we are punishing them for unethical behavior.

  21. Reese Witherspoon?
    As for the kids maybe not knowing what their parents did – really??? The kids didn’t know they weren’t completing their own applications and essays or taking tests? Did they believe they were on rowing/soccer/volleyball etc. teams? The only thing the kids might not have known was if it was a bribe/donation – that would be easy to keep from them. The rest of it – they knew, imho. That they may have done well once there is one of those does the end justify the means things…

  22. University professor here. I’m not a part of the admissions process, but I’ve caught dozens of students cheating in my class. Each time, they brush it off and ask to do the assignment again, getting very angry when I not only say no, but that they are getting a zero for the assignment. Never has one cheating student demonstrated genuine remorse, which makes me believe that it’s a part of their entitled personality.

  24. How stupid are the parents? Their kid will have to write papers in college. Are they going to hire the same person to write his/her papers in college? The child will get a degree that is useless and if hired anywhere will be found out to be a faker. Let’s hear it for making your kid feel worthless. Dopes.

  25. The Obamas-
    I think anytime you use nefarious means to gain entrance to anything you should be kicked out when found out!
    However the schools need to be overhauled- they take in BILLIONS- because students have to compete with foreign students who often pay twice as much to get in- then are radicalized because of these foreign sponsors who have insane ideas in their countries…. it’s a huge problem- the whole system is corrupt!

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